Prior to beginning work on this discussion forum, read
Arcathia Health Care Organization (HCO) is an organization whose current holdings include a 250-bed hospital, three walk-in clinics, a home health care agency, a rehab facility, and 10 satellite doctors’ offices with a total of 50 doctors working in the satellite offices. Arcathia HCO has a capital investment budget of $50 million for the next three years. They have a list of capital investment options that total $100 million that are possible for the organization to pursue. These options are as follows:
- $10 million to start 10 new walk-in clinics across the community, to include facility build out, three years of salaries for staffing, and marketing the expansion of services. Locations for the new clinics will be in low-income, median-income, and upper-income areas of the community. There will be two clinics in the low-income areas, four clinics in the median-income area, and four in the upper income areas.
- $5 million for a new electronic health record system that will serve all providers across the organization.
- $5 million for cybersecurity automation.
- $15 million for a new robotic surgical system plus the cost of 5 years of salary for two physicians trained to operate the system. Additionally, the costs include an update to the operating room to accommodate the new system.
- $30 million to purchase and renovate a 100-bed hospital building that was closed 6 months previously due to the current owners losing its Medicare and Medicaid funding. The hospital is located in a suburban community approximately 20 miles away from the Avalon Health Care Organization hospital.
- $5 million to purchase and renovate a hospice facility.
- $5 million to build a clinical laboratory that will run disease-specific tests for cancer patients.
- $25 million to purchase private properties surrounding the existing hospital, raze the existing homes, and build a new structure to house a state-of-the-art birthing center.
Address the following in your initial discussion post:
- Select the capital investment projects you would recommend to the hospital leadership. Provide your rationale for the choices made.
- Discuss any ethical considerations related to your expenditure choices. Address a minimum of two ethical considerations in your post. They can be from the following list, or you may discuss other ethical issues not identified here:
- Use of data (e.g., quantitative and qualitative information) and analytics (e.g., statistical analysis of the data to reveal patterns, correlations, and cause-and-effect relationships) and the affect it has on patients
- Safeguarding patient privacy
- Equal access to treatments
- Reconciling patient care decisions with fiscal responsibility
- Implementing artificial intelligence and robotics
- Devising ethical responses to pandemics and other widespread medical emergencies (AdventHealth University, 2020)
- Equitable patient care
- Impact of expansion, both advantageous and detrimental (e.g., increase in jobs versus negative impact on marginalized populations), to the surrounding community
Your initial post must be at least 250 words and use a minimum of two credible sources to support your discussion content. The supporting resources can be your textbook as well as the required or recommended resources provided in this course, the University of Arizona Global Campus Library, or credible websites.
The Scholarly, Peer-Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources (Links to an external site.) table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. All referenced materials must include citations and references in APA format. Please see directions for including APA Style elements on these Writing Center pages: APA: Citing Within Your Paper (Links to an external site.) and APA: Formatting Your References List (Links to an external site.).
Guided Response: Due by Day 7. Review at least two of your classmate’s capital expenditure choices and justification. Compare your peer’s expenditure choices to your own. Discuss any further ethical concerns that were not addressed by your peer based on the expenditures listed.
Reference:
AdventHealth University. (2020, May 5). 6 ethical issues in healthcare in 2020 (Links to an external site.). AHU Online Blog. https://online.ahu.edu/blog/ethical-issues-in-healthcare/